Council Backs More Power for City Manager

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

June 15 -- Clearing the first hurdle in his quest for more hiring and firing power, City manager Lamont Ewell Tuesday received the unanimous backing of the City Council, which pushed ahead with changes to the city’s charter.

The plan -- including stripping department heads of civil service protections and bypassing the approval of board members and commissioners -- may come before City voters as one or several ballot measures this November.

Along with some simple updates to the charter -- essentially the City’s constitution -- Ewell said other amendments he wants include increasing the pool of candidates when hiring outside the City ranks and eliminate a 90-day deadline on replacing interim appointments with permanent hires.

“I recognize this is a significant change,” Ewell, the former San Diego city manager, told the council. “I am not taking it lightly. I understand that.”

While council members posed a few questions and wanted Ewell to gather more formal input from the Personnel Board, the council members all said they are in full support of the changes.

Still, some said they want to give voters plenty of time to digest the issue and asked staff to return as soon as possible.

“For people, this is in effect a constitutional change to our form of local government,” said Council member Bobby Shriver.

The 7 to 0 vote now clears the way for staff to begin crafting the ballot language.

It will be one of several ballot initiatives that will likely come before Santa Monica voters, including a school bond, a measure to reform the enforcement of laws against marijuana and an amendment to the Oaks Initiative, a controversial anti-corruption law applied to elected officials in Santa Monica.

In the meantime, council members voted for some minor changes, including clarifying when interim appointments must become permanent. Currently the timeframe is 90 days, although that is rarely met, Ewell said.

Often, they must “take that person out and start the clock all over again,” with a new temporary appointment, even though that person may be doing well at the job, Ewell said.

The council also would like to clarify civil service roles for the City Clerk and Assistant City Clerk, explicitly stating that their salary will continue to be set by the council.

The minor tweaks by council members, however, left all of Ewell’s sweeping charter changes intact.

The most significant of Ewell’s five charter amendments would change the status of department heads from Classified Service to “at will” workers, as it is in many other cities.

As it stands, there are several time-consuming appeals and processes a city manger must undergo to remove department heads that are performing poorly.

“In the worst case scenario, it could take up to two years” to fire someone in civil service, said Ewell. “You should not have to wait two years to exhaust remedies to get them to change behavior.”

This does not mean he believes any of the current managers in the city are weak or bad managers, Ewell said.

“I have to say repeatedly that we have some very strong managers of the City, and no one would have a problem meeting those standards I’m referring to,” which, Ewell said, is a good reason now to examine the change now.”

A second important change would give four boards and commissions only an advisory role in the hiring of new staff.

“Those four boards and commission are currently carved out in the Charter,” Ewell said. “I have to get their permission to make appointments to those positions.”

If this change is made, the City manager would become more accountable for city service, he said.

“The charter says I’m ultimately accountable for their performances, and I think that is how it should be,” Ewell said.

While removing the power of the boards and commissions to approve his picks for department heads, Ewell said he still values their input.

“In exchange… I would not make any of these appointments before first consulting them,” he said.

Another charter change Ewell is seeking would change the so-called “rule of three names” to a “rule of three ranks,” increasing the applicant pool when officials are looking outside the City to fill its ranks.

The “rule of three names,” Ewell said, “ ties hands of department heads to quickly fill those positions and look at a broader array of people.

“We want to respect the internal promotional opportunities of our employees,” he said, “but when we do go outside we want to have the maximum flexibility to fill those positions with the best and brightest of people.”

If the amendments are to make the November ballot, staff must come back to the council with the language by August 8.